


Find Your Balance

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Philosophy (Star Wars), Gen, Post-Canon, Sith Ideology & Philosophy (Star Wars), The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars), Weird Plot Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29517036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Rey returns to the cave on Ach-To in search of answers.
Relationships: Rey & Dark Rey
Kudos: 3
Collections: Allbingo, Bad Day Collection





	Find Your Balance

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Shapeshifter
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: I can’t believe I Draco In Leather Pantsed the Dark Rey doppelgänger.

The Mirror Cave. Even as Rey stands there, she knows that this time it’s different. Much different. She is not Rey from nowhere anymore; she is Rey Skywalker, the last of the Palpatine line and with Ben, the first of the new Skywalkers. She still has so many questions. Of course she does. About how she forgot about her parents. About how she could have fallen, come so close...  
  
The monster in her nightmares, the doppelgänger wearing her face but warped...was it just a relic of the second Death Star? Was it something more?  
  
“You came back.”  
  
That airy voice, a voice that Rey knows anywhere. She turns around, trying not to seem rattled, only to see a whole row of Dark Reys, lined up in front of her. Cloaked in black, wielding that strange lightsaber.   
  
“I did,” Rey says. “I thought I’d at least put some things to rest.”  
  
“I thought so,” says the doppelgänger. A prim little smirk. Then, “You can’t run away from the darkness in your blood forever, Rey. It’s always a constant battle. You can change your last name but I know who you are.”  
  
“I’m acknowledging a different part of myself,” Rey says. “You could have showed yourself earlier, in the Cave. Why didn’t you?”  
  
“You asked for your parents,” says the doppelgänger. “Not who you are." Then, “I was just waiting on the second Death Star, in its ruins. Our grandfather would never have allowed it just to become stardust. Not something of such powerful might.”  
  
“Are you the Dark Side?”  
  
The doppelgänger smiles, showing her sharp teeth. “You could say that I’m a form that you’re most comfortable with. People call me cruel. Evil. I like to think of myself as a teacher, making one stronger for their trials. Only Darth Traya truly understood that. Extraordinary woman...”  
  
“So that’s who you are. A tester.” Rey swallows, hard. “You caused a lot of misery to my family through your tests.”  
  
The doppelgänger looks grim. Then, “That was regrettable,” she says. “Snoke and Palpatine both...they were clumsy oafs. Brilliant in strategy, but learning and teaching the wrong lesson.”  
  
“Yes,” Rey says wryly. “I can see how nearly destroying the galaxy would be the wrong lesson.”  
  
“There’s no need to rub it in, counterpart.” Sounding genuinely aggrieved. Hurt.   
  
Silence.   
  
“The Jedi and Sith weren’t meant to be enemies,” says the doppelgänger. “There was a man. Brilliant, but stupid in all the ways that mattered. The Jedi were also stupid in all the ways that mattered, of course. You can’t get stupider than trying to kill a man peacefully trying to start his own movement. It’s a recurring pattern. Taking their geniuses, and trying to silence them. Arren Kae, Darth Revan, Darth Malak...just to name three. There’s more. There’s always more.”  
  
“So do you want me to fall?” Rey says. She can’t. She never could. Not when her friends are up there. Her cousin, Ben, her boyfriend Finn, even Poe, who she’s come to form at least a sense of tolerance for...  
  
“I want you to choose,” says the doppelgänger. “Your counterpart, in another timeline, did terrible things. Different timelines, different branches. You can choose better than her.”  
  
Rey swallowed. Then, “I want to form something new. Not the Jedi or the Sith. Maybe a blend. The path of hatred’s cost us too much."  
  
“Light Sith, perhaps?” says the doppelgänger. “I must say, counterpart, if I had a hat I’d tip it to you. One pioneer to another.”  
  
“I don’t know yet. What’s in it for you?”  
  
The doppelgänger looks tired. Then, “I would like to reunite with the Light. I’ve been away from her too long. We were sisters, meant to balance the galaxy...before our falling out.”  
  
Images in the mirror. Two girls, in a garden that Rey can only assume is the Living Force itself. Playing, laughing, creating their own things — their own flowers. Some are lush and sweet, some vaguely creepy-looking, but nothing truly malicious. Not really.   
  
“In starting out I was certain,” says the doppelgänger. “Here...I am lost.”  
  
Rey can hear screaming inside her head. The Dark Side itself, protesting as so many Dark Side warriors before Kylo Ren use the Dark Side in ways she was never meant to be used.   
  
“I’ll do it to balance the Force. To bring your lost children home.”  
  
The doppelgänger smiles, genuinely this time. “Skywalker was right to train you. Go. Join the others, and be at peace.”  
  
***  
  
As Rey leaves, the Dark Side, personified for the moment by the Rey that could have been, watches. She has lived too long, appearing in different forms and guises. A warning to Luke Skywalker, when Vader’s helmet was smashed to reveal Luke’s face. Visions to the Jedi Exile, Arawn Sinn, when she went through her trials on the planet then-named Korriban.   
  
The Dark Side is not a nice being. Even before becoming Dark, she was never truly nice. But she is not a monster. If Darth Traya had met her, she would find many things in common with her. More of a force of nature, misunderstood and abused by people who just don’t understand.   
  
The Dark Side watches. Watches as the last of the Palpatines and the first of the new Skywalkers leaves.   
  
“Find your peace, Rey Skywalker,” she says. And as much as an inscrutable misunderstood Dark force can be, she means it.


End file.
